Yeah have been there and done that.
As mentioned have owned the Octatrack 3 times over the years, and also had quite a large eurorack setup a few years ago. Although euro was a lot of fun, it was severely unproductive for me. Definitely the most unproductive I’ve ever been in producing music.
I don’t think I ever actually finished a track in the whole time I was immersed in eurocrack. My studio felt more like a lab experiment than a music studio, and I was the mad scientist searching for the ultimate chemical reaction.
But yes I definitely agree, the most advanced forward thinking hardware currently is in eurorack and precisely why I invested so much time and money into it. So much crazy stuff available, heaps of fun and I do miss all the flashing lights and cables
All the gear and no idea.
It’s a common theme with some producers, it’s mainly why I’ve decided to steer clear of Modular, I’m not heading down that rabbit hole, I know what I’m like. I’ve also watched too many of my mates spend hours noodling away on a patch and never actually doing anything with it.
This is part of why I like the DT so much it forces me to work within it’s limitations, as few as they are. Reminds me of having 30secs of sampling time on my Akai S950 and recording records at 78rpm. I’m getting some great ideas out of the DT that I can see myself using in some form.
Eurocrack was a drug I just had to try. I resisted for years, then became a dirty junky overnight. You are constantly wanting that next hit i.e. module, and it can get messy pretty quick. Beware 
Yeah unfortunately for me these limitations become annoying over time and just want more from my hardware. I only produce alongside a computer so pretty confident if I bought the DT I would sell it shortly after when I realise it just can’t compete with something like Battery and Ableton / max4live controlled by Push 2. But that is my chosen workflow and can definitely understand why this wouldn’t work for a lot of people, particularly those working OTB.
I stopped using plugins years ago and limit my usage to plugins and software I actually own - no cracks or anything like that. I use a few select delays/verbs and some mastering tools but otherwise it’s a pretty meek affair. The primary reason I think I did this was opening old sessions years later and just having loads of missing components and vsts. I primarily use the stock features of Live Suite, but the thing I love about Elektron boxes is that 1:1 control over what the box does, unlike Live where everything needs to be mapped o whatever controller you use (sans Push). But yeah, it’s cool to go exploring and adding stuff, but try culling and clearing out what you don’t use from time to time. I think Blocks/Reaktor looks awesome and Max is in the same ballpark, but often with that stuff it feels more like engineering to me than music. Of course it can lead to music, but you have to build or patch something first. Obviously that’s a very similar approach to modular synthesis, it’s a rabbit hole I’ve tended to avoid mainly to protect my wallet and bank cards. But still each to their own. Everyone’s mind works differently. Try to figure out what works for you and what constitutes overload, find that happy place where music making is as regular an activity as the exploring/learning/developing.
Man, 30 seconds was a luxury and S950 was THE BOMB.
This was my first sampler ever and I actually got two tracks made on it that were released on a hip hop label haha.
People got spoiled by technology and raised in a belief that it can do stuff for you to the point that it became counterproductive to many. In my eyes at least.
I’m happy with my setup and once SE02 gets delivered I’m pretty much done.
Only thing I will miss at that point will be a virus which I had twice and sold it when cash got short. Once I buy it will be my last piece for a looong time.
Yeah this reminds me of deadmau5.
Check out his studio streaming videos.
His studio must be worth millions, has every analog / digital / modular synth known to mankind, but 90% of the time, if not more, he is producing ITB with plugins.
I think it is psychological a lot of the time, and for bragging rights. Maybe he sees these walls of hi-end gear sitting around him and maybe it inspires his creativity?
Either that, or he looks around and thinks ‘fuck this embarrassing. Millions of people watching, all this gear and I’m using Serum, I better turn on this starship enterprise modular system and start tweakin some knobs…’
Someone posted on here a comic of a packrat that had huge amount of GAS!! that was so funny and lessons to be learned
Maybe the problem with modular comes, if we try to go all in and use the modular for all those standard things too, which can be done by non-modular gear and synths as well. When I see, what complex setups often are used to get a “drum-machine” and some “standard synth voices” in parallel, I can understand the fascination about it on the one side, but on the other side, it tends to become more complex and unnecessarily more inflexible then needed.
This may sound like a contradiction at first … modular and inflexibility … but I see it this way. A modular can have only a limited set of patches at one time and has no memories. What can we do, if we want more timbres … well … buy more modules of course and do it the tradtional way … don’t touch the patches, which are already on duty. And this makes things inflexible. Just imagine an AR or A4 like patch on a modular … 
… including p-locks … … including pattern … see what I mean?
I have built up my small modular around the idea of west-coast synths … not puristic … but similar … and … it was supposed to become my synth-lab and the source of sounds, which I would never be able to get from my other east-coast synths. Used in this way, it became a real add-on for special tasks.
Oh dear, then I’ve got bad news for you mate - it IS a joke
SU-10 haven’t seen one of those for years. Ribbon controller on filters felt like the future. Lol. My brother built whole tracks on the QY-70 that were released, but he’s creative like that. He currently releases whole tracks hes built on his iPhone on Warp. I do think there’s something to be said for simplification. I just did a fresh install and got rid of all the plugins I thought I needed but never used. Horses for courses etc
I just watched this video. It mentions nothing about have more items makes you less productive. It does discuss how having more choices is counter-productive. This seems to me to be true when actually deciding to purchase something, i.e. one synth out of 100. It does not really explain how having 5 synths versus 2 makes you less productive. You have already made the choice to own these devices. If you are having trouble choosing which synth to use out of the 5 you own, then i think you probably have an issue with knowing - understanding the gear you bought and what those devices allow you to do more than anything. If out of those 5 synths, 1 is not doing as you want it to do, does not fit your workflow, then its a matter of swapping it out and living without the 5th synth or replacing it. Or you made the wrong choice in what you bought in the first place (due to too many choices, too much GAS etc). Owning x number of synths in itself is not the issue, the issue is more about buying incorrectly, not choosing wisely etc. Part of that is also not just buying for the sake of owning, buy with a specific purpose, function, need in mind.
But sometimes its nice to buy something because you want it, versus you need it. We work hard for our money and there are worse things than spending your money on a hobby you enjoy.
From my point of view i have a lot of gear:
A4, AR, OT, AH, Blofeld, Radias, Minitaur, some Eurorack (i don’t use 
), a VLZ 1640, Strymon BigSky, MX350, a MOTU, and that’s more than plenty
when i acquired the AR the OT was without of use overnight…
later on i combined only two instruments at a time , the AR with A4, the OT with the Radias and so on… and i was happy with the ‘limitations’ although this can’t be said from any single Elektron-box
this is how the things work for me and i am quite saturated, a more on options won’t work for me because i get lost in it. Even when the major companies advertising new gear, which they do frequently, i don`t feel really impressed anymore - because everything they produce is declared as f#+ing awesome* - of course i’m interested, but not as much as i used to be in the past - maybe i’m growing older
To be honest, i am tending forward into more down-earth products like compressors for the end-of-chain, but this kind of equipment is expensive as hell
anyway, i think some sort of self-limitation can be a way out of this ‘sea of possibilities’ - but this is and should not be an axiom for anyone who’s into music
One good thing about this hobby is that gear usually has good resale value. if you buy something, you should get around 80 % back on the new price or thereabouts. This of course decreases the longer you hold it, but it is not the end of the world if you buy something and decide to sell it later.
when it becomes a classic (like a 303 or this other trance-synths from the mid-late 90s) you will be very happy
yes this is true too
For me it’s not so much about losing creativity. It’s more like damn I know the A4 could do this and that, my euromodules are quite deep, the OT, well most of you know how deep it is. Usually I get something I can make a track from, when just fiddling around. But I always have feel the pressure to spend more time with each, because it could potentially give me so much more. So buying additional stuff won’t make it easier.
About eurorack. I personally never was after building another monosynth in euro. I have 4 great monosynths in the A4. I chose mainly digital modules with sounds I couldn’t get out of my hardware synths before. And the great thing about modular for me are the flexibility of routing gates and modulations and stuff like modulating the modulator or a sequencer etc.
So for that my single row is far too small, but combined with Blocks, i can do a lot of stuff like that fortunately, saving quite a lot of money. So far at least. I can get stuff out of that I can’t do with any more tradiotional synth pretty quickly, though the A4 has a lot of modularity on it’s own.
But thinking goes on and on… was it smart to get digital modules? you could get tones like that from blocks too… Yes, but it’s hardware, it’s nicer too handle… yes, but one of those great filters or maybe a great complex oscillator. bla bla
i started Eurorack as a DIY-adventure and i was quite proud of my built modules - however, i never got really satisfied with it… my whole system, the few things i’ve kept, is covered in dust
yes!!! - it looks gorgeous with all the lights and cables - and i see some artists out there who do their stuff very very well, but for the price of a single oscillator, in some cases i could get a whole polyphonic digital or analog synthesizer with plenty of options and modulation-possibilities
Yes it was smart getting digital modules in eurorack.
I went the same way, when I had my euro system it was mainly digital for the extreme diverse range of tones available e.g. My only oscillators i kept till the end were shapeshifter, braids and piston honda 2 (all digital, all wavetables and all awesome)